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Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Things I Love

Today I'm going to talk about the random things I love in books. These are things that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the actual story, and won't result in me loving or hating a book, but they're always fun to see. (By that, I mean that it's more of a "woah cool!" than a "huh, this is my new favourite book.")

Pretty Covers

I can't even be ashamed about this one (okay, maybe a little) because we ALL do it, don't we? I'm sure there has been one instance where you've picked up a book because you're mesmerized by the cover. Even if you ultimately ended up putting it back on the shelf, that shiny, gorgeous cover made you give it a second glance.

I don't know if there's a pattern to the covers I like. I'm sure there is, I just don't know it. Here are some covers that I loooooooove:

(Well, apparently I have a thing for pretty dresses. I WANT THEM ALLLLLL)

Chapter Titles

I love when a book has actual chapter titles! I feel like so many books nowadays have just "Chapter 1" or a Roman numeral to signify the new chapters. I guess that's fine... just kind of boring. I like being tempted about what's to come in the next chapter. That little bit of foreshadowing, or even if the chapter title just sounds mysterious and exciting, gives me something to look forward to.

Rick Riordan has THE BEST chapter titles in his novels. Examples?

I Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher

I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

A God Buys us Cheeseburgers

Character Names

I'm so nosy. When I'm reading, I want to know everyone's name. I'm not satisfied with "the boy with the purple backback" and "the redhead with braces." I don't particularly care if this person is important to the story or not, but I love knowing their names! This is mostly just because I have kind of an obsession with names. I love looking them up and learning new ones and seeing the different spellings. Reading a book and recognizing characters by that distinctive calling card is fabulous.

(I wanted to scribble in "TELL MEEEEEEE!" but I decided against it.)

Places That Sound Cool

This is mostly with the fantasy genre, but I love locations with interesting-sounding names. Again, this isn't for any real reason, but places with unusual names tend to immediately make me think of a mystical, entrancing place.

I also like places with names that actually MAKE SENSE. For example:

The world is the land of potatoes. Everyone eats potatoes and is shaped like potatoes and they sleep on potato pillows (of course, after having taken off their potato shoes!).

Now, in Latin:

Potato = Potare (I found multiple translations although a lot of online translators didn't even have potato. The horror!)

Land = Solum (Again, multiple translations)

So maybe we should call the place... Potaresolum! Except something better than that

Acknowledgements Sections

I always, always, always read the acknowledgements section. They are usually so full of gratitude, love and just plain happiness (I wrote a book! A BOOK, I SAY!) and it makes me smile to read them. Plus, it's fun to go through the names mentioned and see if I recognize any of them.

Basically, reading the acknowledgements section is like soaking in a warm, comforting bubble bath of LOVE.

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What random non-actual-book-related things do YOU love? Are there any that you hate? Let me know in the comments!

I love reading the author's bio. I feel like I get to know the person who wrote the book.And covers--for sure. Sometimes a book sounds really interesting to me, but the cover looks HORRENDOUS and I'm embarrassed to read it in public. But pretty covers make me happy. :)

PRETTY COVERS <3 Yes, I'm a sucker for gorgeous covers! I tend to impulse-buy everytime I see a beautiful cover (but it usually results in me hating the book!) Haha, as for names, well..if one of the character's name is the same as a say..villain from another book, I tend to immediately dislike the character :( And ACKNOWLEDGMENTS! I ALWAYS read the acknowledgement section before reading the book！It makes me smile when authors write 'thank you to all the wonderful YA bloggers...'!

*snickers* Potaresolum..... I LIKE! We should all meet up and take a blogger vacation there. But...WAIT. ARE THEY CANNIBALS? Are they JUST shaped like potatoes or true potatoes themselves? Cause that's totally weird if they eat their own species.

YES. The cover reveal of a book is one of the things I most look forward to in the lead up to release. I judge, it's no use lying. The prettiest cover books make me extra excited <3

I LOVE reading the acknowledgements too!! It's so much fun coming across a familiar name and realising those authors are in each others inner circles. I think one of best I've read is Kiersten White's in Supernaturally <3

LOL I LOVE THIS!!! Haha. I think EVERYONE loves a good cover, but I totally agree on the acknowledgements pages, love them. and yep. Rick Riordan's chapter titles are legendary.

I actually love book fonts! It's SO lame but I love it when a book uses a really interesting font or technique. Also, paper quality haha. Saving June has such terrible quality paper, it makes me sad. I love a good, smooth creamy page :P

hahahhahah! I love this! You're right, it does help to do something like this every once and a while :) So, I'm a sucker for book fonts- like Cait. The book get's bonus points when I recognize the font. I love it when I see a photographer's work that I've been stalking turned to a book cover. So far this year I've seen four and that makes me weirdly happy.

I also like it when books use quotes from other books/tvs. Especially if its a quote i've never seen before. Great idea!

Best post EVER. I totally agree on chapter titles - Percy Jackson has THE BEST chapter titles ever! Man, I love that series. Percy will forever be my favourite demigod ;). And of course, covers. Prettiness is definitely a plus. I also have this thing of how good the books feels when I'm holding it - especially with paperbacks. Like, you can get paperbacks with really hard covers that don't really open much and so the spines crack really easily, and you can get paperbacks that are sort of really floppy and just stay open at any page you pick. Do you know what I mean? I don't know if it's just me, but I prefer the floppy ones. I also love acknowledgements that are really cool and funny. Fab post!

Michele: It's just so much more interesting than the standard numbers, don't you think? :)

Jenna: Yes! I missed that one. If an author bio is done well, that's awesome. I hate it when a book cover makes me feel embarrassed to be reading the book. Like when I was reading Wolfsbane? I preferred to keep the book face-down, LOL.

Samual: YAY PRETTY COVERS! <3

Shirley: Yes, exactly! I actually love seeing mentions to bloggers :) Or even readers in general, haha. I have that problem too with the names. It's been happening less and less though with the more books I read!

Erin: Denial is useless at this point ;)

Brodie: LOL. I have no idea where cannibals came into this but... no. Just potato-shaped. I'll be right over there! On my canoe of course. I LOVED Supernaturally's acknowledgements section <3 KISSING FTW.

Steph: The author's note, you mean? Yes, I LOVED that. It really added to the story for me :)

Cait: There's another one I forgot! I love fonts too :) Paper quality... never would have thought of that! I hate the cheap, thin paper though. Especially since if you accidentally spill a drip of water or something, the whole thing is ruined.

Trish: Woah, 4? Go you! I wish I was knowledgable enough to be able to do that :P I just admire when it's actually turned into a cover. Oooh, you mean at the beginning of the chapter or whatever? Yeah, that's cool.

Anon: I'm the exact same :) Thank you!

The Book Girl: RIGHT. Like in Tamora Pierce's novels - there's no way I can keep everyone straight at the beginning. Even a list of terms if there are foreign ones is really helpful sometimes.

Liz: Thank you! I do toooo. I'm not sure how many demigods I know, but... ;) SO TRUE! I love the floppy paperbacks. I'm always opening the other kind just a fraction and then twisting my head in like every direction just to read it.

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About Me

In addition to being a book lover, Sonia is a tree hugger and happiness enthusiast. She loves to learn (yay school!) and could gush endlessly about Harry Potter. Sonia is a very proud Hufflepuff. BADGER PRIDE!